just hyperbolic vitriol from Connor McDavid fanboys.
League parity has never been higher. Shooting/save percentages are everything and have very little to do with leadership and more to do with speed, skill, and perhaps coaching details.
Look no further than the Avalanche. 30th in shooting percentage last year. Set NHL record for fewest points. 2nd in shooting percentage this year. Looking to make playoffs Did they add leaders? No. Did they shuffle out dead weight vets and bring in skilled youth and simultaneously see an uptick in luck factors? Probably. Did they trade away their fake #1C to allow their actual #1C to blossom? Regardless of that answer it wasn't leadership.
I'm not saying there are not mental, detail-oriented, or strategic factors at play affecting overall performance but it is pretty silly to talk abot games where you outchance a team something like 20-5 and say that a lack of leadership was why you couldn't score or let in four goals. Maybe you couldn't score because you couldn't score. Maybe you let in goals because they should have been routine saves.
No I am not saying that chance differentials excuse the little slide but I am saying that when you play a system (i.e. buy in to what a coah is selling) and no results are being produced.....
well it sucks for everyone. Fans and players alike. It's not poor character. We've seen it up north. Hall, Dubnyk, Cogliano, Petry, Schultz, Eberle, Pouliot. Talented scapegoats who found new life elsewhere. Now the Flames were never that bad but player assessment should be based on talent not who speaks up vocally in the locker room against more talented teammates and parlays that bs into a four year contract and proceeds to mail it in (not that the talent was ever there).
And if that player does mail it, you waive him instead of waiving your hardest working fastest most lovable Paul Byron.